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Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by stripping their attire.

Numerous examples have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".

A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".

"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Regulator Position and Platform Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.

Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.

It is frequently used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.

History of Controversy and Policy

The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.

"The platform has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.